19 Jan 2016

Glen v Clonduff U21 Preview

Ulster U21 Championship – Paddy McLarnon Cup

CARR AND GORMLEY TO
DO BATTLE ONCE AGAIN

It’s 1991 and a wet Sunday in the
Athletic Grounds.Down trail Derry by a
point and Michael Greenan awards the Mourne men a free outside the forty five
metre line.Time is almost up.Up steps Ross Carr with total confidence and
swings his left foot to force a replay.Derry’s
Enda Gormley could only watch as another chapter in the 1990s Derry/Down
rivalry unfolded.

Both
Carr and Gormley are similar.Played in the
same era, both left footed, with a common steely focus during their playing
days.Ice cool under pressure many times
when their teams needed them most demonstrating nerves of steel.The life of a place kicker is different.The match winner or the villain – it’s all
fine margins.That’s why they are
different.Their preparation is
different – a bag of balls and endless hours of practice.All for occasions like that Sunday in Armagh
when Carr swung his ‘ciotóg’ to earn his side a replay putting Down on the
march towards Sam.

This
Saturday in Creggan Carr and Gormley will be in opposite dugouts.Legends in both counties but many of their
young charges wouldn’t have been born when their managers were in they
heyday.A few clicks and probing of
YouTube will give them some idea of what has went before them.DVD’s were not even in use back then but Carr
and Gormley’s unshakable focus is currently been handed down to the new breed.

There
is no need to go into Glen’s achievements again.They are holders of the Paddy McLarnon Cup
and will be heavily fancied to go all the way this year.After seeing off the brave challenge of their
eternal rivals and challengers Slaughtneil in the first round, the Derry
championship just took care of itself.After a speed wobble early on in the county final – they swatted Loup to
one side.

Gormley
and his assistant Seamus Doyle will have to put their thinking caps on in terms
of team selection.The Derry
championship was 13-a-side but Ulster is the traditional ‘fifteen man’
game.

Tiernan
Flannigan has been used in all the games and the goal poacher is a likely
starter in attack. Ryan Dougan missed the win over Loup and if he recovers from
injury is likely to be named at midfield alongside Conor Glass, otherwise
Cahair McCabe could get the nod.Glass
himself is just back from another two week spell with Hawthorn FC ahead of his
move down under this summer.When the
chips were down against Slaughtneil it was Glass that delivered.

Glen
will look to Oisin Hegarty to perform the man marking duties in defence with
Conor Carville holding the centre and Cathal Mulholland attacking on the
wing.Their defence will need to be
disciplined in the tackle as Liam McGreevy will punish them from frees.

If
McFaul, Glass and Dougan can win the midfield contest then Tiernan Flannigan,
Paul Gunning and Conor Convery will often be the target with Danny Tallon
likely to be pulling the strings in the half forward line but Glen have so many
options that anything is possible for them.Jack Doherty provides plenty of running power to their team and is
currently training with the Derry senior squad.

Clonduff
delivered a first Down U21 title in ten years with a win over Mayobridge (3-10
to 0-11) and it didn’t come handy for them.Trailing 0-6 to 0-1 early on and were struggling to cope with the
swirling breeze but this is something they will need to prepare for this Saturday.Creggan is a fantastic pitch but it is
exposed to the loughshore elements.

Clonduff
pegged the ‘Bridge back to 0-6 to 0-4 by half time but the introduction of
substitute Conor Murray was vital.He
bagged two goals and I’m sure Enda Gormley will be keeping an eye out where he
lines out at this Saturday.

Glen
will be favourites this weekend but Gormley will be hoping his old adversary
Carr and former Down player Shane Ward won’t have something up their sleeves
and have the last laugh once again.